Oh, so that's why...

China blames American lab for causing delay in bird flu sample sharing
The Associated Press

Published: September 8, 2006
BEIJING China is blaming the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causing a delay in its attempt to share bird flu virus samples needed for drug research and development, a state-run newspaper said Friday.

China's National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, its main research and testing facility, has already prepared 20 samples required by a CDC lab designated by the World Health Organization, the China Daily said.

"But the U.S. lab has not yet completed import procedures, causing an indefinite delay in the shipment of the virus," the newspaper said, citing an unnamed Agriculture Ministry spokesman.

The allegation mark the latest sniping in the often bumpy cooperation between China and global health experts. International health experts have repeatedly complained about Chinese foot-dragging in cooperating in investigating emerging diseases like bird flu and the SARS pneumonia.

Virus samples are needed to produce diagnostic tools and vaccines. So the lack of cooperation, experts say, could slow efforts to track diseases and develop vaccines and other strategies to deal with them.

Julie Hall, an infectious disease expert at the WHO's Beijing office, questioned the assertion that the U.S. lab was to blame. She said China's Health Ministry has so far shared six samples with the CDC using the same import procedures without any delay.

"Where there's a will there's a way," Hall said in a telephone interview. "We've bent over backwards to try to accommodate their concerns ... but they have not yet shared."

Calls to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, were not answered. The Agriculture Ministry did not respond to telephone and fax requests for comment.

While the Health Ministry has improved its cooperation with foreign health experts in recent years, foreign scientists have criticized the Agriculture Ministry for refusing to turn over virus samples since 2004.

The reason for the ministry's reluctance isn't known, although some countries are slow to share genetic information or samples of viruses collected within their borders for fear they will be pushed aside in the global race to produce a lucrative vaccine.

In February, the WHO and the ministry reached an agreement under which China would share the samples by transferring them from the ministry's lab to WHO-linked labs, the China Daily said.

But, the China Daily cited the Agriculture Ministry spokesman as saying that the U.S. government only allows import of undiagnosed samples, while the Chinese samples are diagnosed and must undergo strict screening before they are allowed in.

Hall said the CDC receives thousands of viruses each year — about 400 from China alone — all without problem.

"The procedures are all there," Hall said. "In terms of logistics, it's fairly routine."

Bird flu, or H5N1, ravaged poultry in Asia in late 2003. It also jumped to humans and has killed at least 141 people worldwide. Most human deaths have been traced to contact with sick birds.

Experts have warned that if poultry outbreaks are not controlled, the virus may mutate into a form more easily passed between people, potentially resulting in millions of deaths worldwide.

Two distinct "clades," or genetic families, of H5N1 have been identified. The Vietnam 2004 strain belongs to the first clade. In mid-2005, a second clade emerged, which has since caused bird flu cases in China, Indonesia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

Earlier this week, the medical journal Lancet said that Chinese researchers may have found a way to create a potential H5N1 vaccine that would maximize production in the event of an influenza pandemic. It was made using the clade one virus, Hall said.

She said it was necessary to get samples from China — where many mutations of the second clade have appeared — so that vaccines for them can be developed.

China has been criticized in the past for covering up its 2002-03 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Its campaign against bird flu, by comparison, has appeared public and aggressive, with health officials touting their efforts to foreign media.

Last month, Chinese researchers said a soldier died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in 2003, two years before the government publicly acknowledged its first human infection.


BEIJING China is blaming the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causing a delay in its attempt to share bird flu virus samples needed for drug research and development, a state-run newspaper said Friday.

China's National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory, its main research and testing facility, has already prepared 20 samples required by a CDC lab designated by the World Health Organization, the China Daily said.

"But the U.S. lab has not yet completed import procedures, causing an indefinite delay in the shipment of the virus," the newspaper said, citing an unnamed Agriculture Ministry spokesman.

The allegation mark the latest sniping in the often bumpy cooperation between China and global health experts. International health experts have repeatedly complained about Chinese foot-dragging in cooperating in investigating emerging diseases like bird flu and the SARS pneumonia.

Virus samples are needed to produce diagnostic tools and vaccines. So the lack of cooperation, experts say, could slow efforts to track diseases and develop vaccines and other strategies to deal with them.

Julie Hall, an infectious disease expert at the WHO's Beijing office, questioned the assertion that the U.S. lab was to blame. She said China's Health Ministry has so far shared six samples with the CDC using the same import procedures without any delay.

"Where there's a will there's a way," Hall said in a telephone interview. "We've bent over backwards to try to accommodate their concerns ... but they have not yet shared."

Calls to the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, were not answered. The Agriculture Ministry did not respond to telephone and fax requests for comment.

While the Health Ministry has improved its cooperation with foreign health experts in recent years, foreign scientists have criticized the Agriculture Ministry for refusing to turn over virus samples since 2004.

The reason for the ministry's reluctance isn't known, although some countries are slow to share genetic information or samples of viruses collected within their borders for fear they will be pushed aside in the global race to produce a lucrative vaccine.

In February, the WHO and the ministry reached an agreement under which China would share the samples by transferring them from the ministry's lab to WHO-linked labs, the China Daily said.

But, the China Daily cited the Agriculture Ministry spokesman as saying that the U.S. government only allows import of undiagnosed samples, while the Chinese samples are diagnosed and must undergo strict screening before they are allowed in.

Hall said the CDC receives thousands of viruses each year — about 400 from China alone — all without problem.

"The procedures are all there," Hall said. "In terms of logistics, it's fairly routine."

Bird flu, or H5N1, ravaged poultry in Asia in late 2003. It also jumped to humans and has killed at least 141 people worldwide. Most human deaths have been traced to contact with sick birds.

Experts have warned that if poultry outbreaks are not controlled, the virus may mutate into a form more easily passed between people, potentially resulting in millions of deaths worldwide.

Two distinct "clades," or genetic families, of H5N1 have been identified. The Vietnam 2004 strain belongs to the first clade. In mid-2005, a second clade emerged, which has since caused bird flu cases in China, Indonesia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

Earlier this week, the medical journal Lancet said that Chinese researchers may have found a way to create a potential H5N1 vaccine that would maximize production in the event of an influenza pandemic. It was made using the clade one virus, Hall said.

She said it was necessary to get samples from China — where many mutations of the second clade have appeared — so that vaccines for them can be developed.

China has been criticized in the past for covering up its 2002-03 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

Its campaign against bird flu, by comparison, has appeared public and aggressive, with health officials touting their efforts to foreign media.

Last month, Chinese researchers said a soldier died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in 2003, two years before the government publicly acknowledged its first human infection.